Shiki Bad blood
by MidGerm
Summary: Vampires and humans play their game of dominance, fighting one another in the small village of Sotaba. however the lines begin to blur between reality and nightmare as unusual outsiders target the village; a hunter from beyond the stars looking for his estranged brother, a madman, ruthless companies with dark agenda's and an ancient darkness older then the human race awaken
1. Chapter 1

Shiki: Bad Blood

"that said, we've had a dozen missing persons reported recently"

The officer said, as if trying for the last time to disade the small group of hunters

"yea, that and the sudden lack of animals"

One muttered under his breath from somwhere in the back of the RV while he made himself a coffee

"dont worry officer, we'll be armed"

The leader of the small group said as he glanced back at one of his team who sheepishly grineed at him, pretending not to hear the comment, the officer leaned into the window and looked into the back of the meduim sized RV. Trying to look at the different animal skins decorating the interior through the darkness and small haze of smoke being gently puffed out by an individual who had not spoken a word to the officer, who seemed unaware of the unease he gave the officer, wether by his bulk being seemingly too big for his cloths, buldging through his tank top and torn army camo pants or his facial features being hidden by his large safari-style hat decorated with various animal teeth of varying sizes. Except for when the cigar he was smoking breifly gave off a dark, weak, sickly yellow light revealing those beedy eyes that seemed inhuman. The officer felt a chill travel down his spine as he locked eyes breifly.

"well, mister Ichiro. Good luck on your hunting trip"

The officer said with a slight tip of his hat, adding with a sly grin

"and tell you what, i'll even let you off this speeding ticket with a warning if you tell me where your heading. I might come visit when i get off shift. Belive it or not, i hunt a little game myself"

Before Ichiro could reply, a small boy, who looked no older then 20, suddenly sprang up and with a big grin on his face

"another fellow hunter. what kind of game do you hunt?"

The boy supprised him with his sudden apearance. Apearing like a ghost from the darkness of the vehichle. the boy had short messy blond hair with an eyepatch resting in his hair and a near perfect face except for a big claw marked mass of scar tissue on the left side of his face. The middle claw in the scar went straight over the boys left eyelid. The officer was about to ask the boy how his eye could have survived whatever happened, but thought it rude and said nothing. The boy promptly noticed the officer staring at him and said

"bear. Not a big one, but big enough, gave me a real good slap, next thing i know these guys have to rush in and save me, yet they still say it was a succsesful hunt"

though what struck the officer as off was the way the boys left eye had a near unnatural shine to it, whereas the other was normal. And he seemed to be wearing just an open jacket, but appearantly went to extreme lengths to cover his left arm from sight as he had a leather sleeve covering the entirety of his arms length. He even had gloves on. And then he noticed the strange small metal disk in the left side of the boys head hidden just under his hair as he cassually brushed it away from his ear. The boy noticed the breif expresion of alarm.

"uh, this is nothing, just a...fashion accessory...you know, like an ear ring"

The officer knew there were some strange things going on in tokyo, but even sticking peices of metal into your head seemed a bit strange, still, kids did strange things, and this boy certaintly seemed strange. Still, apart from the scar, he seemed healthy. And the others at the station knew these guys as they usually bring meat for the officers from some of their hunts as one of them was a former cop or somthing, he didnt really know, but he was told they were freindly, and except for the quiet, muscle bound giant in the back, that seemed true enough. All wearing happy grins seeming no different from any other person. Except for the tell-tale jingle of metal traps gently clinging against one another somwhere in the darkness of the RV.

"so where you boys from anyway?"

"tokyo, well, me and the youngin' here anway-"

The boy gave him a thumbs-up

"- the rest of the party are from different parts of the globe, we got one from china, one from australia, one from america, one from germany, one from texas. We got our own little YMCA going on"

Before the officer could reply, Ichiro quickly added

"uh...english joke, just in case you were wondering"

The officer just nodded and said nothing, a strange bunch indeed. Ichiro glanced breifly back at the darkness that concealed his freinds form the officers sight then grined back at the officer and ruffled the boys hair who didnt seem to mind, in fact, he seemed almost like a cat enjoying a pat from its master. A disturbing thought that the officer tried to push from his mind. No, they seemed decent, the boy seemed to be happy, and despite the few strange things; the scar, the metal, the unnatural shine to his left eye, he seemed to be there of his own free will. Still, never hurt to be sure, there WERE some sick people in the world. Some real sick people; predator didnt seem a good word to describe them. But these people didnt seem anything like that. still

"do you boys mind if i have a quick look around in your vehichle? No real reason, just curosity i supp-"

"and of course to check our weapons are not overly loud and dangerous"

Ichiro said, practically inviting the officer into their RV. Whatever the reason for his freindliness, the officer accepted the lifeline and took it. He didnt want to offend them after all. But he DID want to check out the van, his curosity getting the better of him

Moving over to the door, the officer couldnt help but notice that the van seemed a little different to most. It had thick metal bars on the windows, possibly to prevent animals from getting inside he assumed. Yet what struck him as odd were the CCTV cameras on the outside of the RV covering all possible angles.

The door opened and the officer hesitated for a moment, the darkness seeming to swallowing the light that emmited from his squad car. But he just shrugged it off as a late night of hard work, perhaps he really would try and join them on their hunt, a little time for himself with some freindly people seemed as good a way to unwind as any.

"come on in"

Just as he entered, Ichio planted a firm hand on his chest and stopped him dead the sudden movemnt seemed agressive to the officer, and instinctivly reached for his nightstick.

"oop. Hold on, ill just hit the light"

The officer was momentairly blinded as the unexpectedly bright light shone out like a small weak sun

"good god man. Do you have that bright enough?"

The officer laughed as he entered the vehichle, looking around and getting a good look at the interior at last

"belive it or not, saftey precausion, we make it bright as it is, so if somones lost in the woods or somthing, theres no way they'll miss us"

Ichio said with a shrug, The officer thought for a moment and liked the way he thinked. After all, what kind of potential threat would care for their fellow man like that. Still, the way they seemed so welcomimg of him seemed almost a bit unsetteling. Probably just used to drunk drivers or overstressed worksers getting angry at him when he pulled them over.

There were seven people in total, the boy, Ichiro, the big bulky man who still didint say a word, and he now noticed had what he assumed were chinse words tattooed onto his tree trunk-sized forams. A man who seemed to have fallen asleep reading some kind of biology book. Two men who were in the proccess of cleaning a rifle and a double barrel shotgun. There were a few people also sleeping further in the back of the RV on some rather spartan looking beds. A few graoned and covered their heads with their pillows.

"sorry lads, just an inspection, wont take too long"

Ichio said as he aproached his sleeping companions, reaching down and opening a drawer at the beds base which contained pistols and handguns of various sizes. The ammount of weaponry in the RV that he'd seen in the few seconds he'd enterd was impressive, but also seemed a bit...much

The officer was so focused on the large variety of weapons he'd seen that he didnt see Ichio trying to hand him a particularly dangerous looking revolver

"this here is my favourite tool of the game: compensator"

The officer felt a small ping of jelousy when he thought about his small, weak looking sidearm compared to this weapon.

"its his favourite all right. He's very proud of it. When we find somthing big, or when we dont need stealth anymore. Half the damned forest will know"

The boy said with a chuckle

Glancing breifly at the boy, he looked back at the weapons being presented to him, then quickly spun his head back in the boys direction. He was presenting the officer a very fancy looking bow and a rather lethal looking arrow

"this is mine, sir. Mosquito"

He said with notible pride as he handed the bow and arrow to the bewildered cop, any more weapons and this could probably be classified a small armoury, he wasnt looking forward to the paperwork if he DID find even one thing amiss

The bow in question seemed very taut. A bit too on the heavy side for the officers liking, he couldnt imagine using this to hunt somthing when most use rifles. He himself couldnt imagine managing to really kill anything with it. Then he noticed the various notches, twelve notchs to be precise.

"so you boys ever have any freindly fire incedences? With your own party or others?"

The officer asked nonchalantly. Perhaps he could just come join them when they went hunting, they certaintly had enough guns to go around. And it had been a while.

"none so far. Officer. If you did come by at a later date-"

Ichio said as he opened a small fridge and revealed its contents. Alot of alchohole of various kinds and a few frozen snacks.

"-we'll have a mini barbeque"

The officer sighed, great. Alchohol

"alchoholic beverages, sir i'd like to run a quick breath te-"

"sure"

Ichio was being VERY cooperative. Apart from the shady bulk still silently sitting by himself in a corner near the table of his sleeping compatriot, everything else seemed fine. Well, except for maybe the boy, but then again. He was always told not to judge people.

As the officer went back to his squad car to retreive the neccessary equipment for the breath test, he thought with a smile

 _Yea, i think i deserve a break. And these guys seem nice_

Then he heard the sound of frantic communication comming from his radio.

"we've got another missing person reported in, roughly same area as last time, foul play suspected, any units near Sotaba, please check out the area. We'll be sending in more units to conduct a more thorough search ASAP"

 _Great. And if i recall correctly, thats not far from where i am_

At the sound of footsteps, the officer turned to see Ichio with his same happy, nearly goofy grin. Then his expresion changed instantly upon seeing the officers face.

"somthing wrong, sir?"

"nah, nothing, just a bit of confusion is all, i'll have to go check it out. So where did you say you boys were going again?"

 _With any luck, ill be done with this in no time and then we can go hunt some game. It'll feel good to be out with some boys in the woods again, when NOT looking for suspected foul play_

"well, we've been in tokyo for a while, so we figure we'd head on a bit of tour. Get back into basics, Hang out here, hunt some game there, ya know?"

The officer had a bad feeling about this. He had a feeling he wouldnt like his answer. Please dont say anywere near sotaba. People had been disapearing all over the wooded hills in that area for the past few weeks. He rubbed his head to try and calm the dull ache growing in his head.

"so where are you heading now?"

"a village called Sotaba, we're hunting some game in the woods around the village. And to let little Yasahiro maybe attend school there for a bit...uh is somthing wrong officer?"

Ichio asked in genuine confusion as the officers face darkened

"i'm afraid i'm going to have to ask you boys to NOT go hunting game in the area for a little while? Please? I'm-i'm sorry for asking, i KNOW this is irritating and i apreaciate how nice you've be-"

"sure"

Ichio chuckled a bit at the shocked expresion on the officers face

"its nothing to worry about, we still need to get Yasahiro settled into school remember?"

 _Well, maybe i wont be so unlucky after all. Maybe i'll even be able to enjoy some relaxtion time there once i knock off work_

The officer though with a small flare of hope. Meanwhile in the RV, the boy Yasahiro turned off the lights and felt the familar feeling of pins and needles in his head. He had a baaad feeling about somthing. But wasent sure what. Well, maybe it would get better once he got to this new village: Sotaba

Meanwhile, near the base of one of the thickly wooded mountains surrounding the small village of Sotaba, a man rises from a painful sleep in a groggy state, pain and confusion only allowing him a few moments of clarity. He was looking up at the sky, it was starting to get dark, the sky had turned a twilight hue as the sun began to set, he was moving. He was being dragged. Every movment seemed to send agony into his temple. He felt he had no energy left and his whole body ached. But forrced himself to look down as far as he could to see what was dragging him through the woods. With very little light reaching the forest floor he couldnt see very well. And with his vision blurry and growing darker, it was impossible to see what the person...no...thing...was

An impossibly tall, lithe, black creature, that seemed; from his perspective, to be as tall as the trees. He could only just make out some shapes, a strange elongated head, at least he thought it was a head. He saw teeth that seemed to shine silver in what little light there was. He felt the vice like grip that the thing had on his leg as it draged him, and as he lay back, too hurt to do much else, he noticed another shape next to him, he looked over and saw another body. This one was unmistakibly human. Just before embracing the darkness of unconciousness to escape the pain, he saw a tail trailing between him and the other body: seemmingly doubled his own length. And he finally noticed the low, almost silent, threatining noise that the thing was emiiting. A quiet hiss, like some kind of giant mutant snake-like beast. And then the darkness overcame him and the pain fadded.


	2. Chapter 2

He didn't want to be back here, oh god, he did NOT want to relive this again

He was inside the somewhat cramped interior of the back seat, the smell of alcohol hung heavy in the air.

"yasihiro, man, chill out. We're fine"

The man obscured from view by the leather chair said to him with a quick glance over his shoulder. Yasihiro looked down at his pants as some of the beverage he held in his left hand spilled onto his pants. The can felt sticky from previous spills, yet it felt good to be able to feel with the hand again, tapping his left foot to the theme playing on the radio.

"I still think you should keep hold of the tags, you know dad can be a REAL son of a bitch about the smallest thing"

Yasihiro heard his brother chuckle

"Hey, don't talk about grandpa that way"

The statement, though a joke, did stir a bit of resentment in Yasihiro

"Eh….maybe if grandpa did a better job of raising the prick we call a father…."

Another chuckle from ahead, then his brother glanced back again

"Yea, but look at it this way, though we didn't want to do all this shit to start with, we have the skills and the know how to have a good time. Who knows, maybe even more so then dad"

His elder brother was, to yasihiro, the only good thing that their father had done. Though a bit stern and tough to please, he had a very happy and perky personality, the opposite of yasihiro who was usually bitter and unhappy about damn near everything they did because of the lifestyles their father had them live.

"Yea, well, I'll still never thank him for _making_ us do all this military training and shit"

Another chuckle from ahead

"Yea, well, like the English say: fuck the fucking fucker"

Yasihiro simply glared out of the window at the city of Tokyo as it blurred past in a foggy fusion of neon lights and the various dark shapes of people

"Dad likes being a big shot in that damn Yutani corporation, why the fuck don't he just BUY the perfect son, or make the wankers he bosses around _make_ him one?"

Rather than another chuckle however, he heard a small grunt of annoyance

"Hold on, what the fucks this ass hole doing?"

Yasihiro looked back at what his brother kept angrily glancing at. And muttering things in the various languages they'd learned about the drivers sexual preference for dead animals, he wound down the window and gave the driver a middle finger wave

His response was a loud, long continuous honk of the horn, followed by the driver getting even closer to the back of their car. He couldn't make out the shape of the persons face, but he could see the glass bottle of alcohol in one hand and a cigarette in the other

"What the fuck are you doing mate? You got a chopstick up your ass?"

He heard his brother bellow out the window as they approached an intersection with the lights all changing from bright green to bright red, the driver in the car behind them had started to back off a few meters. Swerving from side to side slightly as he did so.

Shaking his head in disbelief, his brother wound the window back up in an attempt to keep the ambient temperature inside the car level.

"some people, huh?"

His brother looked back at him, a small, annoyed smirk on his face. As yasihiro opened his mouth to speak, his brother suddenly cut him off

"WHAT THE FU-"

He never heard his brother finish, instead he heard the loud sound of screeching tires suddenly drown out everything, followed by the loud screech of tortured metal followed the smashing of glass and the tingle as it shattered and sprinkled in all directions. Felt himself suddenly being lurched and violently thrown about. His neck hurting as his head was suddenly and violently yanked and thrown about, small shards of glass embedding themselves into his exposed flesh.

He heard the sounds of commotion, he attempted to look up, but he could barely feel anything, it felt like his heart was inside his skull, with every beat he felt a flare of pain wash across his body, closing his eyes shut as tightly as he could did nothing to help. So he slowly opened them.

The first thing he noticed was there was bent, twisted and broken chair where his lead should be. At first he didn't feel a thing from his leg while his body was awash with pain, then it came like a bucket of water splashed on him. the pain coming from his leg drowning out the pain from any other injuries he'd acquired. He screamed loudly, a strange combination of pain, drowsiness and confusion.

He saw the silhouette of his brothers form start to stir, at first, his vison was blured, but he could make out shapes as his mind seemed to lag behind reality for a few seconds. Then suddenly everything turned a very bright white which continued to grow until it was blinding. He tried to look to its source but moved too slow and saw only the front of the truck speeding towards him for a split second before-

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Yasihiro awoke with a start, hyperventilating and sweating. He looked around at the darkned interior and felt relief as he instantly recognized the familiar place. He was in the RV, he was safe…..safe

"Bad dream yasihirio?"

He heard a familiar voice ask him from behind, turning slowly from the bed he was on, located just in front and to the side of the other bigger beds, essentially a glorified couch. He saw a weak light shining on Adelric who was still reading the same biology book.

"Where are we?"

Yasihio slowly dragged his legs out of his Spartan bedding and planted them firmly on the floor, gently putting pressure on his left leg, hearing the satisfactory, almost whisper quiet moan of his mechanical leg

"At our destination"

The german's Japanese was, like the rest of them, perfect from years spent together, but he still somehow managed to keep his accent. Though he did tend to struggle a bit with English from time to time.

"Yea but…..wait….we are?"

Yasihiro slowly walked past the counters packed with various electronic equipment and and snaking wires on the floor and looked out the open door. Sure enough, they had stopped; Ichio was outside talking to a small group of elderly people. He didn't listen in to whatever they were talking about. He could have if he wanted to. but why bother, it would just be Ichio introducing himself and the familiar giant muscle bound hulk that stood silently behind him as usual; telling them why they were there. asking various things, what interesting things there were to do.

"What's the time?"

The german looked up from his book for a moment

"1990, July 11. Tues-"

"hardy fuckin' har. You know what I mean, thanks"

"at least you got a good night's sleep."

Yasihirio noted the smirk on the man's face as he left the RV

"hey!"

He knew the boy was there before he even spoke. He could see him from the CCTV cameras covering all angles of the RV and out the corner of his one organic eye.

"Hi, names Yasihiro, you?"

"Tooru, Tooru mu-"

The boy tooru stoped mid-speech as Yasihiro stuck out his organic hand to shake hands, his eyes staring at the metal arm and leg he was doing his best to keep from view without seeming conspicuous

"I don't really like to talk about it, tooru, and I prefer if you kept this a secret, im not here to be the village freak because of my augs"

Tooru looked flabbergasted, but somewhat regained his composure with a happy a happy smile

"Sorry, a what?"

"Augmentation. It's sort of a prototype, so they aren't public yet. Hence I end up being something for everyone to goggle at."

Tooru seemed a bit saddened, but simply said with a smile

"Don't worry, no one will hear it from me. So…where are you guys from?"

Yasihiro smiled, he liked this Tooru even if he did think he was lying through is teeth. He had a good feeling about him.

"We're from Tokyo city"

He said with a casual wave in the direction of the adaults conversing

"me and him anway. The rest of the group are from different parts of the globe. They come from all over"

Tooru's smile seemed to get bigger

"No way! Another city boy!? I have a friend who lives here now who was once in the city too!"

Yasihiro heard footsteps approaching and glanced over to see Ichio approaching

"Right, let's go get our home into a nice snug place for now. I've been told a place where we can plant it for now, easy access to the road and it's not a very long walk to the main part of town, also, it's just down the road to the clinic. We'll set up camp there for now."

He glanced at tooru

"Sorry, you can continue your conversation with your new friend later"

"you heard the boss, guess I'll be seeing you around"

Yasihiro said as he climb back into the darkened interior of the RV

"Yea sure, I'll try and get my friend Yuuki, you guys should get along well"

Something about what tooru said before leaving caused yasihiro's head to tingle. But he pushed it to the back of his mind, he doubted he'd like his friend, but he'd give it a shot.

Yasihiro felt the entire RV tremble and tilt as the familiar giant entered and sat down next to him on the couch, his form taking up the bulk of the couch as they both sat in silence while. yasihiro's eyes travelled about the RV, taking the various familiar view of the things scattered about. From the shelves that held guns on display to the draws that hid even more from view, the animal skins on the floor of various kinds of beasts that the group had slain over the years. And then he admired the giant next to him.

White skin marked by the occasional scar that had yet to fade completely, a shaved head with certain scars that would never heal properly and marked one of the things that made him and yasihiro close. Arms and legs that were easily larger than yasihiro's whole torso, the skin tight and bulging with barley contained thick knots of muscles. Beady ice blue eyes that seemed to shine like diamonds set on a face that appeared to be made of stone, wearing his usual trench coat which could be used as a small tent by someone of yasihiro's size. And those tattoos on his forearms. Yasihiro put them on him himself. Though seeming confusing to other people who did not understand the language, they were simple enough: honour, vengeance; one for each arm

"Hey Gahnk? Think I might head out for a bit of a look around after we set up camp. Want me to pick up anything for you?"

Yasihiro asked nonchalantly, the giants only a reply; a brief grunt and a shake of his head. He was a very quiet man, he never spoke unless absolutely necessary (usually to threaten someone or tell them they were pushing their luck if they were particularly dim) except to yasihiro, even then their conversations were brief. Yasihiro simply nodded, though his big friends voice sounded like two stones being ground into dust, he liked when he spoke, it felt it good for him to socialize.

"Alright then"

Yasihiro pulled out a small MP3 player and placed the corresponding earbud into his ears.

He chose a familiar track, something a rock band made from America and that he and some friends had made a cover of so that anyone who wanted to listen to it (not that many did want to, as he usually didn't ask) could. If there was one thing he was grateful for in his original stupidity and dedication (which border lined on worship) to his ass-hat of a father, it was he slaved over damn near everything he could get his hands on in an attempt to get the old prick to be proud of him. To be the 'perfect son' he always wanted. _That's in the past_ he thought bitterly, he'd given up on getting the love he wanted from his old man some time ago. He listened to it in silence for the remainder of the journey

' _It starts with one thing, I don't know why it doesn't even matter how hard you try. Keep that in mind I designed this rhyme to explain in due time (all I know). Time is a valuable thing, watch it fly by as the pendulum swings, watch it count down to the end of the day, the clock ticks life away it's so (unreal). You didn't look out below, watch the time go right out the window-'_

He tended to let his mind drift and wander when listening to music that he and his friends and brother had made. While his brother may have been gone, he wouldn't want him to let it get to him. After all, the last thing yasihiro or his brother wanted was for him to end up like their father.

Even so, there was a small pang of sadness that gripped him when he let his organic hand fall to the Guntō blade safely kept in its old leathery worn scarab. Tangible proof, along with the broken, burned American made dog tags that hung from his neck, that his brother lived on this earth. That he did things with his life. He kept them with him to remind him that, in the end; there light in the darkness.

Feeling a sudden headache coming on, yasihiro stood up and started towards the small kitchen sink in the RV, but stopped and turned to the silent giant who was busy lighting another cigar.

With a flick of his thumb, yasihiro activated the small lighter in his mechanical thumb and offered it to him when he saw him having trouble with his lighter. With a nod of thanks, he allowed yasihiro to light the cigar for him. With his cigar light, the giant expected yasihiro to continue with whatever it was he was doing before, but he stayed where he was. Raising an eyebrow in a silent question, yasihiro held out his hand

"I feel like it's time again, big guy, can I have your flask?"

Gahnk looked unhappy, but nodded in grim understanding. He never liked to see yasihiro doing this.

Looking comically small in his massive fists, he handed the small metal flask to yasihiro. Looking away, almost as if embarrassed. Walking over to the sink, yasihiro opened one of the draws and pulled out a larger than normal syringe. Jabbing it into his arm and feeling the almost enjoyable feeling of experiencing pain in his last remaining human arm. He started the somewhat slow process of taking blood from his arm, then squirting it into the flask, which he noticed was still a bit full from the last time he did this.

To anyone else, the small boy draining blood from his body and using it to fill the giant's flask would probably have been an unsettling sight. But to everyone in the RV, it was the as natural as could be.

Yasihiro still remembered the chilly feeling of when he first heard the news. The disbelief that life wanted to give him an even worse hand then he already had. He'd heard of more than plenty of situations in which someone would be glad to have more blood then needed, but for yasihiro, it was just another problem he could add to the collection.

' _Damn disease, cancer…thing. What did the doc say it was again? Polycythaemia Vera….a fancy name for "hahaha, YOUR FUCKED"'_

Looking out the window, he saw a girl out front of a house with a dog on a leash trying frantically to continue their walk despite the human not moving. Staring intently at the RV moving by. probably curious to the sound of the massive vehicle moving into their small village, other than the small brown haired girl (probably close to yasihiros own age), the long road seemed to be empty of other people. With a shake of his head, yasihiro continued with his task, he didn't know why he was expecting the street to be packed with gawkers. But years of expecting the worst tend to have a lasting effect on one. After filling the flask, yasihiro walked back over to hand it back to the giant who took it and drank some of the content with a bit of visible hesitation, as he always did at first; if someone thought the giant wasn't human….well, they weren't wrong.

Meanwhile, located deep under the eastern mountain of sotaba. the tall, lithe black creature hung motionless amongst the stalactites while other identical creatures sat or stood motionless, while others crawled along the ceilings and walls, almost seeming to glide gracefully along the natural rock formations and the strange black substance that seemed to be spreading like a cancer, slowly taking over the rock.

Held to the wall of the strange, pitch black room, the man opened his eyes for what would be the last time. His human eyes unable to pierce the black veil that enveloped the underground that the nightmares which took him called home.

He couldn't see them, but he could hear them. Some must have been moving about. The tell-tale thump and occasional splash of their feet as they traversed the darkness. And that awful, bone chilling hiss and the occasional, unnatural growl.

The man opened his mouth to call out quietly, as he remembered the other man that was taken alongside him. But he suddenly felt an intense pain in his chest.

As the pain grew to an unbearable hight, he let loose a wet scream as he felt blood or bile begin to rise up in his throat. And then, he more _felt_ it then heard it. The crunching snapping of bones breaking, and as his scream died on his lips and his pain and vision began to fade. He heard the sound of a new born nightmare as it clawed and chewed its way out of his chest. With a full grown coming to help its newest family member. The creatures birth pangs being the man's death throes, blood splashing about as it frantically wriggled out of its now deceased host, the small creature let out a small, teeth chattering screech to announce its birth to the other adults it could sense nearby.

The adult could sense the other young were ready to be born soon as well. With an eyeless face, it scanned the small enclosed area, the few eggs they moved into the area remained motionless and silent as they patiently waited for a host to be offered up to them. Which the adults would do so the coming night. Plenty had been taken, and there were plenty more still to take.


End file.
